In Media conference,
Christchurch 1 October 2009
Click to edit Master subtitle style
Geoff Lealand
Screen and Media Studies
University of Waikato
4/10/09

D oing the Perfect
Pitch
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A Pitch for Television (or Film)
Draws together knowledge on:
•
Industry structures and processes
•
Funding (budgeting and funding sources)
•
Genre and formats
•
Audience and demographics
•
Scheduling
•
Writing for television
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A Pitch also …
•
Replicates industry practice
•
Provides a low-tech production element
•
Allows for student creativity and collaboration
•
Develops important presentation skills
•
Is ideally suited to Level 2 and Level 3
production-oriented Achievement Standards
(Media Production and D esign and Concept)
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Students in my second year course
SMST216 Television: Media, Audience,
Narrative do a pitch as a major piece
of assessment (as a trio or pairs).
The over-riding imperative is that they
pitch a programme for an audience
other than themselves ie no
programmes about 4 students living in
a flat!
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My Pitch
Delivered to The Big Pitch
competition, SPADA conference,
November 2008
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S a turda y N ig ht
a t the M ovies
Click to edit Master subtitle style
Geoff Lealand
Screen and Media Studies
University of Waikato
4/10/09

But it could play any night
of the week!
Click to edit Master subtitle style
4/10/09

A g a p in the s c hedule
There is not much attention paid to
film on New Zealand television,
except for the occasional plug or
cursory film review.
There is certainly nothing to
compare with Australia’s very
popular
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A t the M ovies
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Saturday Night will
fea ture…
The kind of content you would expect to
find:
•
Box office news
•
New releases
•
New technology
•
New Zealand (and Australian) films
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B ut there is m uc h tha t is
new …
Such as:
M y Favourite Film
- a weekly surprise guest, talking
about his/her best-loved film, the first
film they ever saw, what going to the
cinema means to them.
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g ues ts
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A ls o
A regular slot:
B e g inner’s G uide to the M ovies :
Eg -some basic film terminology
-what is the ‘box office’?;
-how do films get funded and distributed?;
-what does a film producer do?
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a nd im po rta nt ques tio ns
like…
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A no ther w eek ly s lo t
Film s Yo u O ug ht To K now
A bout
- featuring the great and the not-
so-great films/stars/directors of the
past 110 years.
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V iew s fro m the A udienc e
V ox po ps from film-goers
E x pert o pinio ns from writers and
reviewers
When I sit down next to you in a movie
theatre, we get to share each other’s point of
view. We become part of a collective soul.
That’s the magic in the movies.
M. Night Shyamalan (2005).
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T he B es t L ittle C inem a in
N ew Z ea la nd
Our Wo m a n in the D a rk visits
cinemas (public and private)
around New Zealand and rates
the ambience, screening quality
and the refreshments.
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I n P ro duc tio n
Visits to local film sets and post-
production facilities, to see it all
being made
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•
Competitions (such as The
C ell-phone R em a ke)
•
Stunts (and stunt-men !)
•
A dedicated website, with
blogs)
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T he po tentia l a udienc e
15 to 65 year olds but with a strong
skew to 19-35 year olds (the primary
film-going age group)
But niche audiences (eg The Gloomy
Sunday set) will not be neglected!)
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T he likely a udienc e
•
Films fans…and film festival buffs
•
Media students (the 10,000+ of them!)
•
Budding film-makers
•
Viewers who like info programmes with a local
slant
•
People who want to be entertained but also
learn something new along the way
•
The New Zealand screen industry!
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T he fo rm a t
•
Half-hour, weekly programme
(Wednesday at 10pm would be a
good slot!)
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Pre-records and live continuity
•
Clips and interviews
•
Flashy graphics
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P res enters
A engaging male-female pair, who
seldom agree on anything (think
Siskel and Ebert!)
Young, attractive and laconic (think
Jaquie Brown!)
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Funding
•
New Zealand On Air (mucho local
content and support of local enterprise!)
•
Contra deals with distributors
(Paramount/Universal, Sony,
Hopscotch)
•
Merchandising (DVD releases, T-shirts,
books)
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Fo rm a t s a les ?
With a simple substitution of
local content…
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fina lly
As William Goldman once famously
declared “Nobody knows anything
[about the movie business]’
but Saturday Night might just make
us a little wiser
Kia ora
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The outcomes of my Pitch?
•
A positive response from the judges and
audience (but not the winner!)
•
Approach from a producer
•
Tentative agreement from a broadcaster
•
But nothing much has happened in the
past few months…but I enjoyed the
experience!
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